Why are gender differences in the Swedish parliament diminishing? Inter-parliamentary and extra-parliamentary causes

Abstract

During last decades, gender differences in representative bodies have diminished in a variety of areas, descriptively but also substantially. For example, in Sweden, social issues are still a typical female issue among older representatives, although this is no longer the case among younger representatives. A similar trend can be noticed internationally, although Sweden appears to be at the forefront, which defends choosing the case. The project aims at explaining these diminishing substantial gender differences among parliamentarians, thereby paying attention both to intra-parliamentarian and extra-parliamentarian causes. With intra-parliamentarian causes we refer to party strategies, professionalization of parties and the cyclical life of policy issues. With extra-parliamentarian causes we refer to changing living patterns including changing models for care-services (New Public Mangagement), which might have led to a stronger involvement of men in care responsibilities. If causal factors interact, which is probable, the project will strive to show more in detail how this interaction proceeds. We will use available data from SNES (Riksdags Surveys) and collect originaldata from longer interviews with parliamentarians.